Pakistani Police Detain Afghan Immigrants

Some immigrants said that even though they had passports and visas, they were detained by the Pakistani police without any reason.

The Afghan Immigrant Council in Pakistan announced the detention of more than 17 immigrants in Islamabad.

Some immigrants said that even though they had passports and visas, they were detained by the Pakistani police without any reason.

“I’ve been told there were seventeen people arrested, and then the number rose. They frighten and threatened people in automobiles in a dangerous way. Both those with passports and those without were being detained until morning,” said Mir Ahmad Rufi, the head of the Afghan Immigrant Council in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, some of the detainees, who were eventually released after posting bail, spoke of how they were detained by Pakistani police.

“We were detained overnight at the police station from twelve until seven in the morning. They then arrived and began questioning. They looked at our visa and passport. Then … they freed us,” said an Afghan immigrant in Pakistan.

The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR), calling to refrain from politicizing the issue of immigrants in Pakistan, urged the neighbors—especially Pakistan—to treat the Afghan immigrants in accordance with international norms.

“Pakistan is our neighbor, and the Afghans who have moved there have done so in order to live in safety. They ought to be treated as immigrants and be given the rights in accordance with the international principles and laws,” said Abdulmutallab Haqqani, the spokesman of the MoRR.

“The Afghan embassy in Pakistan is obligated to investigate the reasons for why the Pakistani police arrested the Afghan immigrants,” said Asifa Stanekzai, an expert on migrant affairs.

More than 2.5 million Afghan immigrants live in Pakistan, and 300,000 of them lack legal documentation, according to the Islamic Emirate’s consul in Karachi, Pakistan.

Pakistani Police Detain Afghan Immigrants
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Muttaqi Urges Envoys of Several Countries to Resume Activity in Afghanistan

Suhail Shaheen, said that the ground realities in Afghanistan and media reports abroad are contrary to each other.

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his delegation in Qatar met ambassadors and representatives of a number of nations including the UK, the US, Spain, South Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia, and Canada.

According to Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Muttaqi briefed the participants in the meeting about the political, economic, security and governance developments in Afghanistan.

“Muttaqi and his delegation provided a detailed response and said that these delegations should be present in Afghanistan and see the realities of Afghanistan from close instead of continuing their work from abroad,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Islamic Emirate’s Qatar- based Political Office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, said that the ground realities in Afghanistan and media reports abroad are contrary to each other.

“The world needs to have fact-based assessment and judgment about the country for a realistic approach,” he said. To this end, Shaheen said, the meetings between Islamic Emirate delegations and the world are “necessary and productive.”

Political analyst Najib Rahman Shamal said that the international community may seek to help the people of Afghanistan by strengthening relations with the current government of Afghanistan.

“Considering the positive results of these negotiations, the world countries might have been ready to help the people of Afghanistan through strengthening relations and engagement with the interim government,” he said.

“The world, particularly the regional countries, have always stressed that there should be an inclusive and legitimate country in Afghanistan but there is yet to be such a thing to happen,” said Sadeq Shinwari, a military analyst.

Meanwhile, in his meeting with Mutlaq Al-Qahtani, special representative of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Muttaqi discussed various political, economic, and trade issues, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Muttaqi Urges Envoys of Several Countries to Resume Activity in Afghanistan
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Pakistan urges the Afghan Taliban to prevent militants from crossing the border and staging attacks

BY MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press

2 August 2023

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister on Tuesday asked neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to do more to prevent militants from crossing the border to stage attacks such as the massive suicide bombing earlier this week that killed dozens in a border region.

The appeal came days after the bomber struck an election campaign rally of supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric on Sunday, killing dozens and wounding scores in the district of Bajur. The death toll from the bombing rose to 55 on Tuesday, after a critically wounded person died in hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar, hospital officials and the government said.

An Afghan-based branch of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Bajur attack. IS militants are Taliban rivals and have stepped up attacks since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the militants find sanctuaries inside Afghanistan, regroup and rearm there, and subsequently infiltrate Pakistan where they carry out anti-government attacks.

The Afghan Taliban government “should undertake concrete measures toward denying their soil be used for transnational terrorism,” he said while visiting some of the wounded in a Peshawar hospital.

The bomber targeted a rally of the radical Jamiat Ulema Islam party, which is part of Sharif’s coalition government and also has ties to the Afghan Taliban. The party has a strong following in northwestern Pakistan.

The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the suicide bombing in Bajur and “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” describing it as “one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.” Members of the council called for the perpetrators to be held accountable and for other countries to cooperate with Pakistan on the matter.

Northwestern Pakistan was formerly a militant stronghold until successive military operations claimed to have routed militants from there, including the Pakistani Taliban, a separate group but allied wiith the Afghan Taliban. The group is also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.

 

Pakistan urges the Afghan Taliban to prevent militants from crossing the border and staging attacks
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Slowly and Carefully, the Taliban Are Reining in Jihadists

World Politics Review

In early July, U.S. President Joe Biden stirred controversy by stating that al-Qaida no longer has a presence in Afghanistan—thanks, he suggested, to the Taliban. Responding to a question about a recently released State Department report that was critical of his administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden replied, “Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. … I said we’d get help from the Taliban.” He then added, “What’s happening now? … I was right.”

The Taliban predictably applauded Biden’s statement. But others pointed out that it contradicted a United Nations report issued in February, which stated that “ties between Al-Qaida and the Taliban remain close, as underscored by the regional presence of Al-Qaida core leadership.” Moreover, a more recent report released in June by the same U.N. monitoring team included a claim made by an unnamed U.N. member state that the successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri as al-Qaida’s de facto leader, Saif al-Adel, has recently moved from Iran to Afghanistan. The June report also described the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaida as “symbiotic.”

However, this time again, U.S. officials quickly disputed both claims, with one saying that al-Qaida “simply has not reconstituted a presence in Afghanistan since the U.S. departure in August 2021.” How are we to make sense of these conflicting characterizations?

To begin with, the reports issued by the U.N. monitoring team have always been somewhat controversial, because they rely on information passed on by member states but lack transparency as to which member state shared what and how strong the consensus is on specific issues. As each report has seemed to rely on a different set of sources, it has not been uncommon in the past for successive reports to contradict each other. The lack of transparency also lends the reports to manipulation by state agencies, which can hide behind them to disseminate partial, biased or even outright false information.

But beyond that, the dispute over al-Qaida’s presence in Afghanistan and its relationship with the Taliban is a war of definitions. When approached by my research team, the Taliban do not deny that some al-Qaida members are present in Afghanistan, as are larger numbers of affiliated organizations, including vestiges of the old Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU; Uyghurs of the Turkestan Islamic Party, or TIP; and various other groups.

The Taliban insist, however, that these people are not terrorists but asylum-seekers who have agreed to the Taliban’s demand not to use Afghanistan as a platform for exporting jihad. Moreover, the members of al-Qaida who are in Afghanistan appear to mostly belong to al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS, rather than to al-Qaida central. That jibes with U.S. intelligence claims that no senior cadre of al-Qaida central, including Saif al-Adel, are currently in Afghanistan.

Given that al-Qaida central’s role is to support and protect the group’s leader, it seems logical that, with al-Zawahiri dead and no senior figures in the country, that structure relocated. The AQIS members in Afghanistan do appear to have active training camps, but these seem to be dedicated to helping the Taliban train their new army, rather than terrorist teams meant to be deployed abroad. In any case, the contribution of AQIS to the Taliban’s efforts is marginal, and there is no evidence of AQIS helping active jihadist groups based in Afghanistan, such as the Pakistani TTP or the Iranian Jaysh ul Adl.


Clamping down on al-Qaida was never in the cards. Slowly and carefully, however, the Taliban have been increasing the pressure on a number of other jihadist organizations.


Does this qualify as a “symbiotic” relationship, as the U.N. report describes it? Clamping down on al-Qaida and its affiliates was never in the cards, and the Taliban never committed to it, even in Doha. Doing so would be immensely divisive for the Taliban, who are already facing enough internal rifts. Slowly and carefully, however, the Taliban have been increasing the pressure on a number of jihadist organizations, especially Uyghur and Uzbek groups. The intent is clearly to reassure neighboring countries that have adopted a positive, business-oriented attitude toward the Taliban’s emirate.

The Taliban already ordered the Uyghurs, who were concentrated in Badakhshan near the borders of Tajikistan and China, to move away from both borders in October 2021. Unhappy about the decision, a significant proportion of the TIP’s roughly 300 members defected to the Islamic State, which also has bases in parts of Badakhshan. Others went into hiding with the complicity of some local Taliban networks, and still others fled to the border with Pakistan, where they were offered hospitality by the Pakistani TTP, which controls some stretches of territory there.

Of the two main groups of Uzbekistani jihadists in Afghanistan—one based in the northwest near the Uzbek border and one based in Badakhshan—the Taliban have concentrated pressure on the former, probably because of its location close to Uzbek territory. After over a year of constant attempts to force them to relocate, the Taliban eventually succeeded in getting them to move. Some may have joined a reintegration scheme promoted by Uzbekistan, although the Uzbek authorities have not confirmed any arrivals from Afghanistan. The majority appears to have fled to the border with Pakistan, also seeking the protection of the TTP. Others joined the Islamic State in Badakhshan, according to sources in both the Taliban and the Islamic State.

Kabul’s writ is weak in Badakhshan, where different Taliban factions are still jockeying for both local power and the favors of the central Taliban leadership. The latter are unable to dispatch a large troop contingent there due to ethnic tensions between Pashtuns, who make up the bulk of the Taliban’s army, and the local Tajiks. Moreover, the region is the main remaining stronghold of the Islamic State in Khorasan, after it moved most of its members out of eastern Afghanistan. As a result, Kabul probably considered it best to leave well enough alone there.

As for the Pakistani TTP, the Taliban are deeply divided about what to do about it. The Haqqani network and most Taliban from eastern Afghanistan consider the TTP as their brethren and resist any idea of clamping down on them or forcing them to give up on attacks against Pakistan. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzaza, is reportedly more willing to intervene, but his power to do so in eastern Afghanistan, where the TTP is based, is almost nonexistent. The compromise approach that has instead been adopted first saw an unsuccessful attempt by the Haqqanis to mediate between the TTP and Islamabad in 2022. They are now pursuing a partial relocation of TTP forces and associated civilians to northern Afghanistan—that is, away from the Pakistani border.

While the TTP issue has been a longstanding challenge, a more recent case involves the Iranian Baluchi rebel group Jaysh ul Adl. Once funded by Saudi donors and operating from Pakistani territory, Jaysh ul Adl’s activities inside Iran collapsed after Tehran and Riyadh signed their diplomatic normalization deal in March 2023, agreeing among other things to clamp down on flows of support to each other’s adversaries. The Baluchi group now seems to have regrouped in Afghanistan, near Iran’s Sistan province, where it receives some support from local Taliban officials linked to the Haqqani network, which is on poor terms with Tehran. Surely, this will be a bone of contention between Haibatullah, who enjoys close relations with Iran, and the Haqqanis.

It seems clear that the Taliban intend to tackle the issue of the presence of foreign jihadists at their own pace, avoiding excessive internal tensions and relying as much as possible on voluntary returns or relocation. The lingering difficulties are due to the lack of consensus within the Taliban’s leadership about the future shape of Kabul’s foreign relations, with some—like Defense Minister Yaqoob and intelligence chief Wasiq—more inclined toward cooperating with the U.S. and Western powers, and others preferring engaging with regional powers. Among the latter, there are divisions between those would like to limit engagement to China and Uzbekistan, and others who want to extend it to Russia, Iran and Pakistan. These divisions affect how the Taliban treat different groups of foreign jihadists.

While it is clearly misleading to suggest that the Taliban have adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward the presence of armed groups on Afghan territory, it is also not true that they are in cahoots with foreign insurgents, particularly those planning to export jihad. To the contrary, the presence of foreign jihadists in Afghanistan is often the result either of Kabul’s difficulties in enforcing its own policy or of its inability to arrive at one.

Antonio Giustozzi is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and the author of “The Taliban at War” and “Jihadism in Pakistan,” among other publications.

WORLD POLITICS REVIEW
Slowly and Carefully, the Taliban Are Reining in Jihadists
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ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility for Deadly Attack at Rally in Pakistan

The New York Times

1 August 2023

The Islamic State affiliate in South Asia claimed responsibility on Monday for a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan that killed dozens of people and injured about 200 more, in the latest bloody sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

The death toll from the explosion on Sunday, which targeted a political rally in the Bajaur district near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, rose to at least 54 people, Shaukat Abbas, a senior officer at the provincial police’s counterterrorism department, said on Monday.

The Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed on Monday that a suicide bomber had carried out the attack, characterizing it as part of the group’s war against democracy as a system of government, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The blast was among the deadliest terrorist attacks in months in Pakistan, where some militant groups operating along the border with Afghanistan have become more active over the past year. The rise in violence represents a grim shift: Since 2014, when security forces carried out a major military operation to flush militants out of Pakistan, the country has experienced relative calm.

But several high-profile attacks this year — including a bombing in Peshawar that killed more than 100 people and an hourslong assault on the police headquarters in the port city of Karachi — have sent shock waves across the country, with scenes of bloodshed that seemed to announce militancy’s return to Pakistan.

The attacks have raised questions about whether Pakistan’s security establishment can stamp out militancy without the American air and other military support it relied on during the 2014 security operation. The violence has also stoked tensions between Pakistani officials and the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, which the Pakistani authorities have accused of providing haven to some militant groups. Taliban officials have denied that claim.

“The attack in Bajaur unquestionably presents a significant escalation of ISK’s growing capacity and aggressive stance in northwest Pakistan — a region which is already home to many other militant factions,” said Amira Jadoon, the co-author of “The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Strategic Alliances and Rivalries,” using another abbreviation for the Islamic State affiliate.

“It also shows ISK’s continued ability to access and operate on both sides of the border, as it has done so in the past.”

At least three people suspected of being involved in the attack have been arrested so far, the local police chief, Nazir Khan, told news outlets. They were being interrogated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, he added.

On Monday, funeral processions took place in most villages in the Bajaur district as dozens of families gathered to bury victims of the attack. Even those not mourning loved ones were shaken by the attack and its aftermath, residents said.

Shakir Ali, a shopkeeper who volunteered to take the injured to the hospital, said the screams and cries echoing across the area after the explosion were still ringing in his head on Monday. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, almost everyone who passed him was covered in blood, he recalled.

“It was difficult for us to determine who was injured and who was not,” he said.

The attack — among the first by a militant group on a political rally in the country this year — stirred concerns about whether the country’s deteriorating security situation will affect the next general election, expected in the fall.

The election is seen as critical to restoring political stability to a country that has been rocked by mass protests and unrest since Imran Khan was forced out as prime minister in a vote of no-confidence in April last year.

Paving the way for the election this fall, the current government is expected to dissolve Parliament in August and hand over power to a caretaker government that will oversee the election process. The establishment of a caretaker government is constitutionally required to carry out a general election.

While it is unlikely that ISIS-K has the capacity to significantly disrupt the elections, many security experts are concerned that the Pakistani Taliban — a militant group also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or the T.T.P. — may try to target campaign rallies or voting sites, analysts say.

The T.T.P. — which is an ideological twin and ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan — frequently attacked political rallies during Pakistan’s 2008 and 2013 election seasons and the group has seen a resurgence since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

“The question is how is the T.T.P. planning to sabotage the coming election season,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. “So far, indicators are that it won’t — but that can change.”

Salman Masood and Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting.

Christina Goldbaum is the Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief for The Times.

ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility for Deadly Attack at Rally in Pakistan
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US Envoys in Doha Meeting Call for Islamic Emirate Policy Change

According to the statement, US officials expressed “grave” concern regarding detentions, media crackdowns, and limits on religious practice.

Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and  Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri in a meeting with senior Islamic Emirate representatives in Doha, Qatar, urged the Islamic Emirate to reverse policies responsible for the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly for women, girls, and vulnerable communities, a US State Department statement said.

According to the statement, US officials expressed “grave” concern regarding detentions, media crackdowns, and limits on religious practice.

Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri tweeted that in the meeting they discussed the removal of restrictions on women and girls, including access to education and work; release of detainees; end to corporal punishment, and crackdowns on media and freedom of expression.

“We emphasized that respecting human rights is central to achieving security, economic progress & stability; maintaining hope & human capital; & improving standing with the international community.”

Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West also tweeted: “Concluded two days of meeting with senior Taliban representatives & Afghan technocrats in Doha re: critical interests in Afghanistan. We discussed the country’s economic situation, human rights, humanitarian needs, security commitments, inclusivity, & counter-narcotics issues,”

Meanwhile, some officials of the Islamic Emirate said the meetings were useful.

Suhail Shaheen, head of the Political Office of the Islamic Emirate in Qatar, said the Islamic Emirate delegation had fruitful discussions with the US team in Doha.

Earlier, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said that the issues of trust-building and practical actions toward this, blacklists and the removal of sanctions, the release of Afghan assets, the continuance of economic stability of Afghanistan, counter-narcotics, and human rights were discussed.

The Doha meeting on Afghanistan ended yesterday (Monday) with the presence of a delegation of Islamic Emirate officials led by Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and US representatives for Afghanistan, including Thomas West and Rina Amiri.

US Envoys in Doha Meeting Call for Islamic Emirate Policy Change
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Taliban, US hold first official talks since Afghanistan takeover

Al Jazeera

1 Aug 2023

Two-day talks in Qatar’s capital focused on economy, human rights and narcotics trafficking, officials say.

Taliban leaders have met officials from the United States in Qatar for the first time since their return to power in Afghanistan two years ago.

A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the two sides discussed confidence-building measures during the two-day talks, including the lifting of sanctions and travel bans as well as the return of Afghan central bank assets held abroad.

The delegations also discussed combating narcotics and human rights issues, Abdul Qahar Balkhi said.

No country has formally recognised the Taliban since its return to power.

The group took over in August 2021 as Afghanistan’s Western-backed government collapsed in the aftermath of the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country after 20 years of conflict.

Since their takeover, the Taliban has faced international condemnation, including from several Muslim-majority countries, over restrictions the group has imposed on women’s education. Afghanistan is also grappling with a humanitarian crisis, with almost half of its population – 23 million people – receiving assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP) last year.

The US State Department said in a statement that its officials told the Taliban that Washington was open to technical talks on economic stability and repeated concerns about “deteriorating” human rights in the country.

Attendees – including US Special Representative Thomas West and Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri – voiced “grave concern regarding detentions, media crackdowns, and limits on religious practice”, according to the statement.

The officials also called anew on the Taliban to reverse bans on girls’ secondary education and women’s employment as well as for the release of detained Americans.

They also “voiced openness to continue dialogue on counternarcotics”, recognising a “significant decrease in cultivation” of poppies this growing season.

Taliban fighters used the plant, from which opium is extracted, to help fund their armed struggle for years. By 2020, 85 percent of the world’s opium was flowing out of Afghanistan, according to the United Nations. But since their takeover, authorities have banned the crop.

The US froze about $7bn in Afghan central bank funds held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after the Taliban took power. Half of the funds now are in a Swiss-based Afghan Fund.

A US-funded audit of the Afghan central bank failed to win Washington’s backing for a return of assets from the trust fund.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Taliban, US hold first official talks since Afghanistan takeover
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Professional Training Provided by Woman for Women

A businesswoman in the capital named Freshta Hashmi is providing work and professional training for more than fifty women. 

This businesswoman said that the purpose of creating this workshop is to support homeless women and students.

Freshta Hashmi, who has been involved in small businesses for 7 years, now supports women by having created a handicraft workshop.

“My goal is for women to work so they can find bread for their families. Since the government of the Islamic Emirate has come, our business has fallen, there are no sales; People do not have money to buy,” said Freshta Hashmi.

Some women that are students in the workshop asked the government to support domestic products.

“I was a 12th-grade student when I was banned from going to school. I had dreams of finishing school. I will go to university, study in the pilot department. I am a sixteen-year-old young girl who has many dreams and I hope that the Islamic Emirate will open the schools again so that I can study,” said Fatima Ahmadi, a student.

“We came here. I am very happy. All our teachers are female,” said Atina, a student.

The Ministry of Information and Culture said that it is trying to create more exhibitions for women in the handicraft sector.

“Whatever our sisters need for handicrafts, sometimes we provide markets and exhibitions in the National Gallery for them,” said Atiqullah Azizi, deputy of culture in the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry has talked about efforts to create three markets for businesswomen in the capital.

“There are three permanent markets in Kabul, which will be established soon by UNHCR and some donors,” said Salma Yusufi, CEO of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that in the past year, more than a thousand businesswomen have received work permits from the chamber.

Professional Training Provided by Woman for Women
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Afghans awaiting US resettlement say they’re being deported from Pakistan back to the Taliban

NICK PATON WALSH AND MASOUD POPALZAI
CNN

Afghans who were promised a home in the United States after their country fell to the Taliban say they have waited so long for the US to process their applications that they are now being sent back to the enemy they fled.

A number of Afghans who worked with the US and were told they were eligible for resettlement there have been forcibly deported back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they fled to await processing following the Taliban takeover in 2021, CNN can reveal.

One man waiting for a US visa described being dropped at the Afghan border by Pakistani police this summer. “They did not hand us over to the (Taliban) Afghan border forces,” he said. “They just released us on the border and told us to go back to Afghanistan. It was me, my four kids and my wife deported together.” He is now living in hiding in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Another deported Afghan, also speaking from hiding in Kabul, said: “So this is very, very dangerous, and it is very tough… How many people have been killed, had been tortured, have been disappeared?” The man, a former employee of a US contractor, said the Taliban “will punish me, they will put me in jail. Maybe they will kill me? I’m sure they will.” He added: “Still, we believe that the USA will help us. We believe we didn’t lose our hope still.”

Both individuals spoke to CNN anonymously for their safety, and provided documentation showing a US visa case number being processed, and evidence of their presence in Pakistan.

Many Afghans fled the Taliban after the August 15, 2021 fall of Kabul to the hard-line group. More than 124,000 Afghans were airlifted out of the country in a huge US-led operation.

Yet, thousands also fled across the border to Pakistan, often with incomplete paperwork, following US guidance that they should wait in a third country for their visa applications to the US to be processed.

Nearly 90,000 Afghans have since been resettled in the US, according to State Department figures, but many others have been caught in the backlog of so-called Afghan Priority 2 (P-2) or Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) applications waiting to be processed.

Human rights groups say the most acute situation is faced by those in Pakistan, from where hundreds of Afghans have been deported in a crackdown against migrants following recent political instability.

At least two Afghans awaiting P-2 visas have been swept up in this crackdown, CNN has learned, and complain of Pakistani police persecution. Several others still residing in Pakistan told CNN about what they said was harassment by Pakistani police and the threat of deportation if they did not pay fines or bribes.

Pakistan’s Foreign and Interior Ministries have not responded to CNN’s request for comment on the claims.

At least 530 Afghans have been deported from Pakistan so far this year, according to Haseeb Aafaq, a spokesman for volunteer group the Afghanistan Immigrants Refugees Council. Aafaq said the figure came from his studies of local records but added it might be a low estimate as many Afghans were deported without documentation.

Aafaq added that the Pakistani authorities made no exceptions for pending US visa cases. “There is no differentiation. The authorities here do not even think about where you are from. If you are Afghan, you must be deported if your visa is not valid, whether you are SIV or P-2 or sponsorship cases.” He said many of those deported are P-2 cases, but he could not provide a precise number as many Afghans keep their P-2 status confidential out of fear for their safety.

Two young Afghan men have taken their own lives in Islamabad since June, both awaiting US P-2 visas, according to activists. Aafaq said one of them, aged 25, who died last week, had suffered “mental pressure and economic pressure and an unclear future.”

Aafaq said the US failure to open a Resettlement Support Center (RSC) in Pakistan meant the processing of cases there had partially stalled. “The RSC has not been activated yet, while in other countries, like Turkey or Tajikistan, people have gone to the US,” he said.

Afghans waiting in Pakistan have reported harassment by Pakistani police, including arrest and demands for money. One, who worked with the US military and asked not to be named for his safety, told CNN: “They were asking for a visa. There were a lot of policemen, they came into the house without clear information. And they took me out of (my) home and they just put (me) in the van. My kids, they were very much harassed. They were crying, they were asking for help.”

He also described how he once saved his American colleagues during a protest, and had commendation letters denoting his service. “I’m disappointed because (of) the way that I served the Americans in Afghanistan. I was expecting them to welcome me there sooner. It seems like I have no future at all.”

The US State Department told CNN in a statement that the Biden administration “continues to demonstrate its commitment to the brave Afghans” who worked with the US. It added that its “processing capacity in Pakistan remains limited, but (staff) are actively working to expand it.” The statement urged “Afghanistan’s neighbors” to “keep their borders open” and “uphold their obligations” when it comes to asylum seekers. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Another Afghan, whom CNN is not naming for his safety, served the US in Afghanistan and is now in Pakistan with his wife and children. He described their wait for US help as a “bad dream.” His wife sobbed: “Going back to Afghanistan is a big risk and here we are dying, every moment. Staying in Pakistan is a gradual death.”

Afghans awaiting US resettlement say they’re being deported from Pakistan back to the Taliban
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US Envoys for Afghanistan Meet with Central Asian Nations’ Representatives

Inclusive governance and women’s rights were discussed by the participants of the meeting.

Two days before the Doha meeting, US special envoy Thomas West and US special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, Rina Amiri, in Astana met with the representatives of five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — and discussed Afghanistan.

Inclusive governance and women’s rights were discussed by the participants of the meeting.

“Many agreed that inclusive governance & women’s rights are integral to economic stability, security & peace. Counterparts underscored that women’s rights are integral in Islam & critical to development, as in their countries,” said Amiri.

“For two years, Afghan women have been far away from the public affairs of the society, and even if they made personal efforts to provide for their lives, they were not allowed. Afghan women are a part of Afghan society. The government has the responsibility to provide ways for their participation in public issues, in education and work, and their presence in the society,” said Surya Paykan, women’s rights activist.

Some political analysts believe that holding such meetings can be effective in solving the country’s problems.

“Such meetings have existed in the past two years and will continue again, but the contact of Mr. West and senior officials of the United States never mean recognizing the Islamic Emirate,” said Wais Naseeri, a political analyst.

“These type of efforts can benefit the people of Afghanistan because they can have a positive effect on the stability of Afghanistan, the region and the world,” said Tariq Farhadi, political analyst.

Meanwhile, there are reports that acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttagi has gone to Qatar to participate in the Doha meeting, but so far the Islamic Emirate has not said anything about it.

Earlier, the Islamic Emirate said that in the meeting to be held in two days with American officials in Doha they will discuss the lifting of sanctions against the current government officials and the release of the country’s assets.

US Envoys for Afghanistan Meet with Central Asian Nations’ Representatives
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